political biographies – Alward, Aaron

Alward, Aaron (MD)

(1828 – 1896)

M.L.A.

Saint John City

Born, May 21st, 1828, at Butternut Ridge, Parish of Salisbury, Westmorland County, N.B. of Colonial Irish and Loyalist ancestry. Second son of Charles Alward (1746 – 1844), and his wife, Elizabeth Keith, both of Loyalist ancestry.

Educated at the public school; at Milltown Academy; and at New York Medical College, receiving his medical diploma in

Located at St. John, N.B. and engaged in the practice of his profession. Served on the St. John city Council as an Alderman, and was Mayor of the City of St. John from 1866 – 1870.

Married, Sept. , 1860, to Miss Hattie Newell Smith, daughter of _________ Smith, Esq., St. John, N.B. By this marrriage there was a family of

First elected to the House of Assembly of N.B., as one of the members for St. John City, at the G.E. of June, 1870, and sat that Legislature until its dissolution in 1874, when he retired. At the G.E. of June 1882, he was again a candidate, but was defeated, and subsequently retired from active politics.

He died, April 13th, 1886, at his residence, St. John, N.B. aged fifty-seven years. Buried in Fern Hill Cemetery, St. John, N.B. Survived by his widow and two sons.

Mrs. Alward died May 2nd, 1919, and was buried in Fernhill Cemetery.

In Politics: a Liberal In Religion: a Baptist.

Family:

1. Son: Frank

(D. March, 1936). Harbour Master — Saint John, N.B.

2. Son: Frederick

ALWARD FAMILY NOTES

The founder of the Alward Family in America is said to have emigrated from Ireland, and settled in New Jersey. BENJAMIN ALWARD, Sr. (D. 1787), is recorded as being a resident of Woodbridge, Middlesec County in 1745. On the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he was a prosperous farmer, owning 315 acres of land with good buildings and well-stocked. His sympathies were with the Crown, and he was persecuted and imprisoned. Upon the retirement of the British Forces from New Jersey, he was obliged to abandon his home, and seek refuge behind the British lines in New York. He was proscribed and his property confiscated, February 12th, 1779.

At the close of the War, he came to St. John with other Loyalists, accompanied by his wife, Sarah, and four sons. They landed in July, 1783, and went first to Maugerville, Sunbury County, where they remained a short time before settling on the south-east side of Washademoak Lake, Queens County.

He filed a claim for compensation, and appeared before Commissioner Pemberton in St. John, January 23, 1787, in support of his claim. He died in the autumn of that year (1787), and his estate was awarded 706 pounds as compensat.

BENJAMIN, Jr., his youngest son, sold out, and moved further up the river to the new settlement being founded there, called New Canaan, and was one of its original grantees, receiving his grant in 1802. He married Hannah Wright, and they had a family of seven sons and four daughters. Charles, father of Aaron, the above, being the eldest.